Look for a story as if it's looking for you! A story may be beckoning you from many sources including your own lived experience, a family story, your imagination, an oral tradition, or written text. 

How do you know that a story has found you? Does it speak to your heart and emotions? Is it 'honest' with connections to your reality, be it plot, character, or themes? Give it a "go". This may take a lot of time - decades even. Back to grade five - a boy standing, so alone, bravely, against the outside brick wall of the gym, being taunted by a half circle of children during recess. The image is seared in your mind, as much because you did nothing to intervene. As you grow, that image is triggered over and over. A visit to the Art Gallery of Hamilton and a Kurelek painting called, "Dammed Pollock" and you saw that boy so long ago. A tragic news story of cyberbullying hit a nerve. There will be a story that calls to you to tell. A Cinderella story? Giraffes Can't Dance?  (Giles Andrede. Orchard 1999), Penduli?  (Janell Canon.Harcourt 2004).  

Then sit with your story. Let it percolate. Let it enter you. Does the story continue to resonate?

Include your listeners in your thinking and selection. Will it speak to the needs and interests of your listeners?

Continue to play with the story until it feels good. (See, "A Baker's Dozen to Get Into a Story")

If, in the end, it does not speak to you, let it go. That's okay too.  It may speak to you later. Be open to another. 

You may want to keep a list of stories, perhaps with a wee annotation for future reference.